“What's Opera, (Doc)?”

If the central idea of opera is people singing, then why are these pieces still called operas? We’ll hear music from Laurie Anderson ’s “United States,” Robert Ashley’s “Perfect Lives,” and Philip Glass’s “Einstein On The Beach.”

Unveiled in 1976, “Einstein” is an opera in name, although not in the traditional form. The amplified ensemble and small chorus singing a text comprised of numbers broke most of opera’s rules about singers, plots, intermissions, when and how to employ dancers. Post-Einstein, that form has been expanded in any number of ways, especially in Laurie Anderson’s “United States” a “talking opera” from the early 1980's, maybe better described as a multimedia narrative work. We’ll also hear from Robert Ashley's vast “American” video opera, “Perfect Lives.”

WNYC 93.9 FM and AM 820 are New York's flagship public radio
stations, broadcasting the finest programs from NPR, PRI and American Public Media, as well as a wide range of award-winning local
programming. WNYC is a division of
New York Public Radio.